Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Russia: Vol. XX. 1876–79.
Lapland
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)(From The Destiny of Nations)
A
The Laplander beholds the far-off sun
Dart his slant beam on unobeying snows,
While yet the stern and solitary night
Brooks no alternate sway, the Boreal Morn
With mimic lustre substitutes its gleam,
Guiding his course or by Niemi Lake
Or Balda Zhiok, or the mossy stone
Of Solfar-kapper, while the snowy blast
Drifts arrowy by, or eddies round his sledge,
Making the poor babe at its mother’s back
Scream in its scanty cradle; he the while
Wins gentle solace as with upward eye
He marks the streamy banners of the north,
Thinking himself those happy spirits shall join
Who there in floating robes of rosy light
Dance sportively.